


shining dappled through leaves

by hirokiyuu



Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-05
Updated: 2020-06-10
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:14:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23978794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hirokiyuu/pseuds/hirokiyuu
Summary: A collection of FFXIV oneshots and drabbles from around the web, mostly OC-centric.ch1: reveli & kas (wol&oc), pre-arrch2: reveli & kas, feat. thancred, mid-arrch3: spinon & kas, post-arr pre-hwNEW! ch4: reveli & kas, post-hw
Relationships: Original Female Character & Original Male Character, Warrior of Light & Thancred Waters
Comments: 10
Kudos: 7





	1. rev&kas, pre-arr

**Author's Note:**

> i've been giving my life away to ffxiv and during queuetimes i've basically just been writing a bunch of stuff abt me and all my friends' ocs.... putting a bunch of them on ao3 so we can all have easier access to it LOL
> 
> if you are here reading this and don't know my ocs thank you!! i hope you enjoy!! <3 i love them v much and i hope you can come to appreciate them even a bit too

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A long night. [rev&kas, pre-arr]

Kas is waiting in her room when she opens the door sprawled over her bed, with a steaming bowl of soup sitting at her fireside table and her favorite dalmatica left folded neatly on the accompanying chair. “Did you know,” he says, “but I think we left a mark on the ceiling all those years ago, when you jumped on the bed so high you cracked your head against it?”

She shuts the door behind her and her legs give out under her. Kas glances over and then sits up, frown settling on his face. It’s an expression she has had the misfortune of growing more closely acquainted with in recent years. “Reveli?” he says, and then crosses to her side. He takes her wrist, measures her pulse, touches her forehead with the back of his hand. “Has something happened?”

The party, that noble, her father -- but it’s nothing she hadn’t expected, so she shakes her head. Kas is unconvinced. “Let’s get you into bed,” he says, softer, and tugs her over to her dresser so he can start undoing her hair. “Another awful night, I take it. Who was your father throwing you at this time? That ugly old man from Nightfeather? The drunk little lording of Brookborne? At least you don’t have to worry about the Pathcutters, I thank the gods every day that your sister was already sent to make  _ that  _ alliance.”

Reveli shrugs a shoulder. Kas’s chatter is a familiar backdrop to his soft hands in her hair, tugging pins out with expert ease. “C’mon, Rev,” he says, more gently. “I need a name, so we can figure out what to do. Even if I can’t find any dirt, Edmund’s new girl is sweet on me, so I might be able to convince her to get him in whatever suitor’s household and have him throw a fit, if it comes to that--”

“Andertree,” she says, very quietly.

Kas pauses. In the mirror’s reflection she can’t see his face, just his tail, which lashes sharply. “Ah,” he says, equally soft, before his hands resume their work. Her hair’s in waves around her face now, and the brush he tugs through it is gentle. “Well. There’s no such thing as an unfixable problem.”

He doesn’t offer solutions, though. Her eyes are very hot. “We can think about it in the morning, alright?” he says. He braids her hair quickly, ties off the end and twisting around to rest on her shoulder. “Got you some dinner, if you’re up for it.”

She hasn’t eaten all night, but her stomach is still in knots. She shakes her head. “That’s okay,” he says. “I’ll leave it here in case you get hungry before morning. Should still be good cold, I think. Now c’mon, let’s get you ready for bed. You’ve had a long day.”

He unlaces the dress for her, leaves her to step out of it and into her sleeping clothes, puts away her hairpins as she ties up the laces on her breeches. When she’s finished he tucks her into bed, pulling the covers over her shoulders as shadows gather at the corners of his mouth. “Night, Rev,” he says, and leans over to kiss her forehead.

“Night,” she whispers back. He smiles at her, brushes the hair off her face, and then goes to extinguish the lights and grab the dirty laundry. She listens to his footsteps in the dark, the creak of the door, a moment’s pause, and then the sound of it shutting quietly.

She lies away in the dark for a very long time before she sits back up. Nerves are still tugging at her, but she forces herself up to take a few bites of soup regardless before she starts digging through the bottom of her wardrobe for the things she’d been slowly squirreling away for months now. Clothes first, the most travel-fit she could get away with, then the gil, then the rations, then the bag. She does her hair up herself, pulls it up into the tightest ponytail without any of the ornamentation Kas would’ve given it, and then smudges some of her makeup around her eyes to make her look older. Takes a few more bites of soup, drops the note for Kas into her dressing table drawer, and turns to the door.

It isn’t locked, of course. She walks out easily, keeps her head up high. There’s a path she and Kas would always use to get out to the gardens as children, and she walks it now, even though the holes in the wall she’d once easily crawled through are a much tighter squeeze. But there’s no one along them, and soon enough she’s by the kitchen doors that lead out the back road.

She steps outside. Dewy grass bends under her feet. It would’ve been smarter to take a cloak, but too late for that. There’s no turning back now.

Reveli closes the door behind her, and walks.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A reunion in the Waking Sands. [kas & rev feat. thancred, mid-arr]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ostensibly set post-ifrit

She pushed open the door, ignoring Thancred on her heels, and stopped dead. “Wh-- Hey, you can’t just stop in a doorway like that!” he snapped, jostling Reveli where they collided, but she barely noticed, because standing at Tataru’s desk still covered in desert dust was --

“Ah, welcome back,” Kas said, turning to face her, a pleasant smile on his face like they’d never left the manor and he was waiting to greet her at the door. “You are  _ incredibly  _ dirty right now; whatever were you doing out there?”

Tataru giggled even as Reveli found herself gaping at him, mouth wide open, blinking to try and clear the dirt from her eyes. But no matter how many times she opened her eyes it was still the same old Kas in front of her -- ears twitching in poorly concealed amusement, dressed in dirty travelling clothes with that fraying headscarf wrapped around his hair, same as always. “Come now,” he said, “surely you haven’t forgotten your oldest and dearest friend?”

He stepped forward; without even meaning to she stepped back, bumping into Thancred once more. Kas paused. The bright edges of his smile had dimmed, minutely, in a motion that no one but her had ever taken the time to learn. “Ravh,” he said, without stumbling over the name, “would you do me the favor of accompanying me to lunch? There’s quite a lot I’d like to discuss with you.”

“Lunch sounds great.” There was a hand on her shoulder, suddenly. She glanced up. Thancred was still standing behind her, and his smile was nasty. “I was just thinking I could go for some food after that journey, myself, and we all know how hard Tataru works. Why don’t we all go together?”

“Uh -- huh?” Tataru said, eyes going wide, head whipping about at the sudden tension in the air. “I, uh, I’m --”

“Actually,” Kas cut in, politely, while raising a pointed eyebrow at Thancred’s hand. “I was hoping that my childhood friend and I could take a little time to catch up one-on-one.” His smile had changed again, this time to the one that was simultaneously exactly the same as his normal smile and yet made completely of ice. “I’m not entirely comfortable with strangers.”

She heard Thancred draw breath behind her but Reveli, against all odds, beat him to the punch. “Kas,” she said, stepping forward to brush Thancred’s hand off her and ignoring Tataru’s clear bewilderment, “I’ll go if you get rid of your linkpearl.”

Kas’s ears flicked in surprise, and he looked at her --  _ really  _ looked, eyes searching her face the way he’d used to watch strangers back home, searching for intent on their unfamiliar faces -- and then, suddenly, his smile was changing again. It was the one Reveli was least used to, crinkly and lopsided and very, very warm. “Sorry, Miss Pasta,” he said, “but I actually lost it just before coming here.”

She blinked. “You lost your Linkpearl,” Thancred said, flatly, from behind her.

“Are you hard of hearing, ser?” Kas’s smile had lost its gentle edges, but warmth lingered, and his eyes didn’t leave Reveli’s. “I lost most of my possessions, actually. Imagine, if you will, a young Miqo’te, aboard a ship for the first time in his life and eager to see the sights the world has to offer! And yet, he is  _ so  _ eager to see that he leans too far over the railing and falls overboard. Only the timely intervention of a crewman saves him -- but alas! His things have fallen from his pockets, lost to the seas below. What a terrible tragedy, wouldn’t you agree?”

“Wh--” Reveli glanced back to see Thancred looking like most people usually did when they were confronted with Kas’s general  _ Kas- _ ness: mildly bewildered and much less mildly pissed off. Tataru mostly just looked confused. “If you were foolish enough to fall off, that’s your own damn fault!”

Kas heaved a great sigh, exhaustion blistering in the sound, and rolled his eyes practically to the back of his head. “I said  _ imagine. _ ” His ears were twitching again. “Honestly, ser, what kind of man do you take me for?”

Thancred sputtered but Reveli barely noticed. “All your things,” she said, and looking closer she noticed a conspicuously empty space on his belt where the sigil of her father’s house had once hung. “All of them?”

“Indeed so,” he said, and sighed dramatically, hand coming to his forehead. “Including all my gil. Which simply means that I’ll be taking advantage of your wondrous adventurer’s salary to -- Whoa!”

She flung herself into his arms. He squawked and nearly went down, and it was only her recent combat training that let her keep them steady. “Gods above!” he yelped, even as his arms came up to wrap around her, holding her tight around her midsection. “You can’t jump me like that, what if you hurt yourself?”

She felt herself start tearing up and clutched him a little tighter, pressed her face against the side of his head. “Sorry,” she whispered, around her closing throat, because even after abandoning him he still worried. Still wanted her to be safe. “I’m sorry, Kas.”

He sighed and relaxed into her, rubbing tiny circles on her back. “It’s fine, it’s fine. I’m used to following you around by now.” That startled a laugh out of her, and she pulled back enough to catch Kas’s eye as he grinned. “C’mon,” he said, hands not quite having slipped from hers, “I’ve been doing it for ten years by now, you don’t think I --”

“Hold on a second!” Thancred’s voice was clear with exasperation. Reveli startled and turned to see him standing, hands on his hips, looking deeply unimpressed. “Weren’t you uncomfortable with him a moment ago?”

“That was a moment ago,” Kas said, very cheerfully. “This is now.  _ Do  _ try to keep up, ser; you wouldn't want to give an impression of the Scions being slow-witted people.”

Thancred made a strangled noise. Reveli gave Kas a flat look, but the expression was hard to keep when Kas was  _ here,  _ in Eorzea and wearing not a single thing that would mark the place where they came from. “Yes, yes, I know,” he said, rolling his eyes under the grin he couldn’t quite shake either. “Spare me the lecture or you'll talk my ear off.”

She rolled her eyes right back and didn't fight it as Kas twisted so his arm was linked with hers, but before he could pull her from the door she turned instead to face Thancred. “Thank you,” she said, and for the first time saying those words to him she meant them, down to her core. “For worrying.”

His eyes widened in clear surprise, and then he was frowning again, but this time it was more embarrassed than angry. “We’re comrades, aren’t we? It’s only to be expected,” he said, before reaching down to ruffle her hair, utterly ruining her ponytail. “But if anything happens from now on, that’s on your head!”

She gave him a flat look -- this one not ruined by any mirth -- but nodded in acknowledgement. “What a beautiful display of camaraderie,” Kas said, lightly, and pulled her out the door before Thancred could do anything more. “You’ll have to tell me all about how you wound up with such an odd group over lunch, as I am completely starving! I am also completely broke, so if you wouldn’t mind showing me to your favorite establishments here, as if you want to go further than a walk away, you’ll need to pay my teleportation fees as well, so….”

Reveli leaned into Kas, letting his familiar chatter wash over her, and for the first time since coming to Eorzea felt the line between her shoulders unwind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> rev&thancred have fairly clashing personalities but they're comrades in arms........ never quite friends but by the time shb rolls around theyre able to trust each other with their lives
> 
> kas is more smiley here bc hes on Rev Is Here!! serotonin


	3. spin&kas, arr post-patches

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A conversation in Limsa. [spin&kas, arr post-patches]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> more kas, this time feat. my friend's wol spinon!! i love her v much she is good

“You play the flute?”

Kas jumps and nearly drops the damn thing, has to scramble so it doesn’t go clattering down the white Limsan stone. “Wh--” he starts to snap, and then turns his head to see someone he does, unfortunately, recognize, and swallows the rest of the word down. “Spinon.”

She’s in a nice leather jacket that’s probably Rev’s doing and some sunglasses, thank the gods. Kas is irritable enough without having to look at her freaky eyes, especially given that she’s got about three expressions total and uses two of them on food. Still, Rev really likes her, and for all of Kas’s distrust she hasn’t actually tried anything yet, so instead of rolling his eyes he gives the flute a little wave and says with a fake smile, “Trying to learn.”

She sits on the bench right next to him, crosses her legs ankle to knee, and rests an elbow on the back of the bench as a cushion for her chin. “You’re planning to stay,” Kas says. He wishes it were a question, but he’s spoken to this person enough to know: it’s not. “I can’t say it’ll be interesting, though, as I’ve only started learning about three days ago.”

“Oh,” she says. Her head tilts a moment, considering. “Want me to teach you some stuff?”

Kas blinks. That’s right -- she’s a bard herself, always with that lute hanging off her back. Good, too, apparently. The Moogles mentioned her when he’d gotten his own job crystal, said she was a once in a millenium talent. It wouldn’t be a bad idea at all, but…. “Why?” he says. “What do you get out of it?”

She looks at him, for a second, those eerie eyes warmer under the glasses. “Well,” she says, after a moment of consideration, “Reveli’s my friend, and you hate me, so I thought we could bond.”

Kas blinks, and blinks again, and then he stares, because  _ wow. _ Either this girl is the exact same kind of idiot as his best friend, or this is the absolute worst attempt at manipulation he's ever seen in his life, and honestly based on the way she's looking at him without a hint of embarrassment he's sort of inclined to think it's the former. His ears twitch. For some reason he’s remembering that time when he and Rev were eight, and she found out the reason he got first bite in every dish was to check for poison and was so upset she wept for hours.  _ Good people exist, _ he'd thought then, and staring at this dumb Au Ra in front of him he wonders if, against all odds, every single one of them lives in Eorzea.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> can you believe that these two eventually hook up


	4. rev&kas, post-hw

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A long overdue farewell. [rev & kas, post-dragonsong war]

“I don’t think I can stay with you anymore,” he said, very quietly.  _ The walls have ears,  _ he’d told her once, when they were children, and she finds herself reminded of that moment now: his face grim and unsmiling, her ears straining with how quiet his voice was, the strange creeping dread in her veins. “I don’t think -- I don’t think I can stay by your side.”

“Kas,” she said, and then stopped, because for all the courage she’d learnt since Eorzea her voice even now so often failed her. Even though this was Kas. No, that wasn’t right, she realized with a strange and distant feeling. It was  _ because  _ this was Kas. With Alphinaud, with Tataru, with Ysayle or Estinien even she might not’ve found her throat closing up. And yet --

He smiled at her. It wasn’t a smile she recognized, twisted a little oddly at the ends, the turn of his lips stopping somewhere short of fond. “Yeah,” he said, as if he could read her silence.  _ As if.  _ When had that statement of fact become a hypothetical? “Yeah, see? That’s what I mean.”

She swallowed, hard. “We’re not who we used to be,” he said, and he hadn’t stopped smiling but something about it was crumpling at the edges. “We’re not just Kas and Rev, anymore, Miss Warrior of Light, and I can’t keep trying to shape myself around you.”

Her throat was tight; she swallowed again but to no avail. “Reveli,” he said, and stepped forward to take her hands in his. “Don’t you ever think I don’t love you.” His voice was wobbling. “Don’t you  _ ever  _ think that, okay? But I need to -- I need to think about myself, for once in my life. We aren’t at the manor anymore. I’m not -- I don’t just  _ belong  _ to you anymore, I’m my own person, I --”

She hadn’t realized she’d gone to hug him until he was already in her arms. “Okay,” she said, because there was nothing else she  _ could  _ say. “Okay,” she said, and her voice cracked as she did. “I love you too, Kas.”

“Course you do,” he said, voice muffled by her thick fleece shirt. She could feel, already, the faintest press of dampness where his head rested against her chest. “If you didn’t I’d have to lodge a complaint.”

She laughed without meaning to and found herself squeezing him just that much tighter. Her staunchest ally, her oldest friend, her precious family. Kas. How many times had he saved her, just by being there? How many wounds had he prevented, just by existing? Her heart was beating because for all those years he’d held it in his hands and protected it to the last.

She loved him. Despite everything -- despite the people she’d met who understood her in ways no one else ever had, despite the time they’d spent walking more and more distant paths, despite the cracks that had ruptured in their relationship since that night she’d left without a word -- she loved him. More than anyone in the world he’d  _ known  _ her, down to the marrow of her bones, and she loved him for it.

And yet. And yet.

His tears had dried. At some point she’d tilted her head down onto his, and his ears began to twitch where she’d nestled herself between them. His tail, which had been wrapped around her ankle, had started to lash. So -- and this was the hardest part -- she let go.

His eyes were all puffy, and rimmed with red. He smiled at her, and this was one that she  _ did  _ know: a soft warm thing, its edges sweetly gentle. The expression with which she was least familiar. The last time she’d seen it had been moons ago, now: the Rising Sands, Thancred at her back, a fake name still echoing in her ears. 

“I think I’m going to try and see what I can do for Ishgard, as repayment for all that she’s done for us. I can’t imagine Ser Aymeric turning me away if I ask for work, given that I’m your friend and all. ” They hadn’t stopped holding hands. He gave them a little squeeze, and continued, “So I’ll see what I can do here, and figure out who I am when you’re not around.

“And don’t think this is goodbye forever!” Another squeeze, his eyes intent on hers. “You aren’t getting rid of me so easily, Rev. I’ll write you, and visit, and whenever you really need me I’ll come right away, okay? That part hasn’t changed.”

“You too,” she said, around her awful tight throat. “You -- whenever you need me. No matter what. I’ll come.”

He grinned at her, and she pretended she couldn’t feel him trembling again. “Good,” he said, and gave her hands a third and final squeeze, and then he let go. “I’ll see you later, Reveli. Stay safe out there.”

She nodded, silently, even though he’d already turned away. She stood there, in her big empty guest room, watching him go, until the door shut behind him and there was nothing but silence, and only then did she let herself cry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> literally everything ive posted has kas in it? im. i just. i dont know why this keeps happening.

**Author's Note:**

> my kids........ luv them
> 
> as per usual catch me on twit @yuunamakis for more writing or @hirokiyuus if ya wanna chat!


End file.
